Emotional Pro

Aired since 2004, Full Power Living has offered more than 210 weekly shows focused on “awakening the world to the power and importance of human emotions.” On February 20, we posted Installment #1 of our show’s history. Here is the second.
Nearing the end of my 13 week commitment, I was about to end my radio career at only 13 weeks, when another show host on the same “station” contacted me about moving to another venue, World Talk Radio. It seems a large group of “hosts” had been experiencing the “we don’t bother to keep our promises” attitude of the recruiting station. But, now hooked on the fun of creating and hosting our own shows, we wanted to continue. We interviewed the owners/operators of World Talk Radio, now more savvy about what was needed and which answers were real and which portended broken promises, and decided to move, en masse. I stayed with World Talk Radio, happily and securely, until more than 2 years later, when they sold out to the “we don’t bother to keep our promises” station, and I moved on to another broadcaster.
The early shows were challenging. Friends and family were my technical advisors and my stars. My very supportive son, Jonathan, coached me through the maze of technology, telling me all that I needed to learn in order to do a credible job. My darling stepdaughter, Deb Fink, an equity actress, agreed to help me with the very first show by asking me interview questions I devised for her. My daughter, Liz, mother of three young children and boss-woman of her own coffee drive-through business (Leapin Lizards Espresso, Inc. in Raleigh-Durham, N.C.), talked with me about parenting and blending home-schooling, parenting and business-building into one life. My friend, Rosane Valentine, a longtime Correctional Officer at the “Big House,” San Quentin Prison, shared what it was like to be a woman on this tough job. My sister, Martie, and another woman I knew, Lisa, shared how they had recovered from life-traumas (Martie’s fiancée had committed suicide and Lisa had broken her back in a fall in an old fire house). My National Speakers Association friends, Susan Page and Allen Klein, discussed Spiritual Relationship and the Healing Power of Humor, respectively. And my wonderful husband, neurosurgeon Dr. Robert Fink, allowed me to go “Inside the Mind and Emotions of a Brain Surgeon.”
Eventually, I involved my dear friend, Deki Fox, who has tirelessly co-hosted many, many shows with me, listened to my ideas and concerns, and coached me through challenges–all without any financial recompense! These wonderful people comforted me in my efforts, open and willing to get this fledgling host started. And timing was great, too, as I read Allen Klein’s book about humor and illness when I was in Germany, working to help my sister-the-internationally-famous-dancer, Keriac, get back to the U.S. and the family who loved her. She had become stranded in a hospital where she was being treated for what turned out to be terminal cancer. Eventually, she got back to California and spent the last 7 months of her life in my home. She, too, was the focus of a show, interviewed from her sickbed. My family has really stood behind me!
Initially, the hardest thing to do was to recruit guests! My early guests readily assented to my invitation to appear. But then again, they were my friends and family! How was I going to get the “famous people” I wanted to talk with about their new ideas, to agree to appear on my little show? Believing in and working with my intuition, I found myself inspired to invite Bruce Cameron, Internet funnyman who had originated the “Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter” then-popular on television, and Gregg Braden, author of The Isaiah Effect, who was by now part of the Hay House stable of authors. My son and I had taken a course from Gregg 10 years earlier, which caused me to feel emboldened to invite him. When Bruce Cameron agreed to talk about “How to Remodel a Man” and Gregg Braden said “yes” to discuss manifestation and emotions with me, I spontaneously overcame my “shyness” at inviting guests.
My career was officially launched! I had been working so hard, learning so much, and facing so many internal “demons,” it only slowly dawned on me that I was 60 years old, and starting a new career! My older age was certainly not going to be like the 60’s my grandparents had experienced.
From that point on, I shamelessly used my previous guests to get more guests! This is hard to admit, since I have a proprietary system for how NOT to manipulate or be manipulated, but ‘tis true! Stating the focus of the show, and citing all the wonderful previous guests, I began recruiting people I thought would work with my theme. To date, in 5 years of programming and close to 200 guests, I have had fewer people than I can count on one hand turn down my invitation!
Eventually, I realized that I was involved in a conspiracy. God, “The Universe,” my own Subconscious Mind—I’m not quite sure who created the conspiracy, but it was clear I was trapped in it. I finally realized that Full Power Living, my Internet radio program, was really a “conspiracy” to get me to expand my knowledge, understanding and involvement in the tremendous changes coming to this world! Each week, you see, I read 1-3 books, highlighting passages that are central to the author’s message or to my show theme, then creating questions and a script for the week. By this point–after four and a half years of programming–my book shelves are overflowing with incredible books containing cutting-edge thought and information about a huge variety of topics! I have read about parenting, communication, emotions, eating disorders, aging, emotions in business, disasters, animal emotions, religion, philosophy, new medical discoveries, energy healing, metaphysics, manifestation, creativity, community building, selfless service, exercise, shamanism, and death and dying—and that’s only some of the topics! Not only did I read their ideas, but I had less than a week to digest and understand them well enough to discuss them with the authors–an incredible job and privilege! (My husband, who had been appalled at how poorly my mind held onto facts when we were first getting to know one another, was thrilled, because he heard me reeling off new ideas and facts from all that I had read. I think he was comforted that my brain could work at least a fraction as well as his own brilliant brain! I must add that I also started taking phyosphytidalserine, which had been touted in The Memory Cure. I swear, it was either all the reading and research, or the supplement that got my brain functioning better.)
In the summer of 2007, I decided to focus for one month on “Manifestation,” the central concept in the popular book and movie entitled “The Secret.” Searching around for people who could address this topic, I somehow uncorked an energy that was looking for a way out! Since July of 2007, I have not stopped talking about Manifestation in one way or another. A deluge of authors and books, approaching Manifestation in different ways, began to contact me. We talked with Dr. Robin Kelly about the connective tissue of the body acting as “The Human Antenna.” Dr. Bruce Lipton presented his research on “The Biology of Belief,” Dr. Dawson Church discussed “Soul Medicine,” Michael Brown offered his incredible “Presence Process,” and a relatively unknown author, Richard Blackstone, shared a remarkable book he wrote called “The Nuts and Bolts of Spirituality.” Dr. Brad Nelson talked about “The Emotion Code.” Another favorite of mine was David Ord’s “Your Forgotten Self,” one of the books that put me into contact with Namaste publishers, a group formed initially to publish the works of Eckhart Tolle, author of “The Power of Now” and “A New Earth.”
I feel almost bad listing only these authors. There were so many, all great. Look at our list here at www.emotionalpro.com on our Radio Page. The people and ideas I have been privileged to get to know through the vehicle of Full Power Living are mind-bendingly incredible! The job of reading, digesting and then talking with the authors of books with new ideas and approaches to life is both challenging and fills me up in ways I could not imagine.  I am most grateful.
In setting the tone for interviewing my guests, I decided to think of my job as similar to welcoming treasured guests into my home, making sure they were comfortable and treating them with the utmost respect. Part of that respect was to make certain I was familiar with their message, so that I could ask intelligent questions. I soon found that many authors (or their publicists) send out a list of questions to media people, attempting to make their job easier. As I talked with them about how they–and others–ran and prepared for their shows, I learned that most radio hosts don’t actually read and digest the publications of their guests! No wonder it was taking me so much time!
Having been a psychotherapist for more than 30 years, I also was not afraid to ask the challenging questions, and had learned to ask questions that interested me or about seeming inconsistencies. And increasingly, I got on-air feedback from most of my guests, appreciating the fact that I actually read their book, asked intelligent questions, made myself easy to talk to, and gave them time to give answers longer than a sound bite! With such feedback, my reputation started to grow. Authors who had appeared previously contacted me whenever they came out with a new publication. Eventually, I was able to book shows two and three months in advance, and no longer had to use valuable time tracking down incredible guests. Now they were finding me!
A few of my guests, like Lorraine Cohen and Patricia Raskin, invited me to be on their programs.  They inspired me to look at what I could take less time doing. Each week, my job is this: secure a guest, get their written materials and media releases, compose and send out press releases announcing the show, compose and send out two announcements to my e-list, post the upcoming show information on my web site, make contact with the guest, read the book(s), compose 12-15 “meaty” questions and place them into a script, coordinate with my wonderful and caring producer, Paul Johnston, and follow-up the program with a personal thank you, one verbal and one a special CD copy of the guests’ show which is sent to them. To accomplish all of this in less time, I learned to 1) read faster, 2) trust my intuition more, 3) hire an Intern to help me (thank you Dennis Urtecho), 4) do Press Releases and e-mail notices in batches, 5) relax and trust myself and my ability to deal with technical problems, sick guests and other inevitable challenges.
In the fall of 2008, my husband, Bob, and I took a two month vacation. We were halfway through this fabulous “trip of a lifetime” when I realized something……….  (to be continued)